Cinque Terre, Day 1

Vernazza

Cinque Terre, literally "five lands," were not on the tourist radar 20 years ago.  Then a new travel writer, Rick Steves, gained popularity by discovering out-of-the-way, quaintly charming places for European visitors.  Cinque Terre were among his major discoveries, and the five little villages that tumble down the Ligurian cliffs to the blue Mediterranean are now one of Italy's biggest destinations.  Hiking between the villages has been a major check box for our Italy experience, so we arranged to do Cinque Terre with John and Kelly O'Neill, who we knew liked to hike.  Along the way, we checked off another box--surviving an Italian railway strike.

Following advice from an unreliable and untraceable source, we booked rooms in Corniglia, the middle village--the only one inaccessible by boat.  No worries, we came to hike, and set off the first full day for Vernazza.  It was very hot and mostly up on the first half, and of course with wonderful photo opportunities.

Home base:  Corniglia

The happy hikers.  Everyone got the memo: "Wear your Tilley hat."

Here is a montage with a blue water theme:

Then we were on the descent into Vernazza, and into the town, with its own sights.

It was quite a hike in the heat, so we felt no qualms taking the train back to Corniglia, cleaning up, going to dinner on a terazza, and enjoying a beautiful sunset.